


Only a Flesh Wound

by theinconceivabletruth



Series: Biological Feedback [1]
Category: Log Horizon
Genre: A bit of gore, Adrenaline Junkie, Ficlet, Fight Scene, Gen, Guardian-class, North American Server, biofeedback fails exploration, just a little, let's be real the anime removing all the blood and guts that the light novel mentions is a crime, sword-and-board, what happens when your real-world fighting experience is based on LARPing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-29 23:48:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18304025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theinconceivabletruth/pseuds/theinconceivabletruth
Summary: You can't make me believe that there wouldn't be a significant subset of the North American player base that have past LARPing experience. Of the more violent variety.A player experiments post-catastrophe.





	Only a Flesh Wound

**Author's Note:**

> So I was holding on to this as a possible piece of some actual fic that I write, but I came to the conclusion that it doesn't fit into any of my current plans (of which there are many). I know most people really only read for familiar characters, but I wanted to post it anyways.

[OC: Unnamed, female, Guardian-class.

 Location: North American Server, a beginner field outside an unknown city. ]

She saw the blow coming and knew she couldn’t avoid it. The goblin’s spear slashed past, striking across her upper arm, and _that wasn’t a critical hit, I’ll be fine_ \- Pain shocked her, a burning sensation where she had been struck, breaking her running self-analysis. Blood flew. Reflexively, she stepped back - _Ow!_ \- and kicked the other goblin she was engaging straight across the clearing. _Make space, make space! Control how they approach you!_

Paradoxically, the burn in her upper arm grounded her more firmly in the fight. It stung like a solid thwack from a red-class sword. _Oh great, now I’m going to have to remember not to call hits and drop my fucking weapon - just let good etiquette fly out the window, girl!_

In-game melee fighting knowledge warred with instincts real world one-on-one fighting had beaten into her. _Spear-user, distance_ hurts, _if I don’t want to hurt get in closer now!_ Knock the spear up, let it ride harmlessly along her shield, rush in two steps to stop a follow-on strike, and slash across the torso for a one-hit-kill, and _why wasn’t it down yet, hit it again! Finish the fight!_

The goblin went down in a spray of blood. The unexpected splatter of warm liquid against her skin broke the adrenaline-narrowed focus. “The fuck? Why is there blood?”

The snarl of the first goblin drew her attention as it rushed back towards her. _Pull yourself together, you have more than one opponent!_ But now she was ready, pumped up on a familiar fighter’s high and determination to win. She hopped over a swipe at her legs and swung her sword down and across, lopping off the goblin’s sword arm as it was over-extended. Shield punch forward to knock it back, followed by a lunging stab to the chest.

 _Got him!_ The blade pierced through the goblin’s leather armor like butter, and its health bar drained to zero from the critical hit. _Well, that’s different than LARPing. Oh shit-_ The dead weight of the goblin’s body dragged her sword to the ground, and she barely managed to avoid faceplanting into the corpse.

_Ew, nasty ugly thing, I can see all its warts! They’re so much cuter on a computer screen._

She set herself in a solid base stance and yanked back on her sword to free it. _Squelch._

 _...Gross. Okay, okay, check your six. No threats in the the immediate vicinity. Now you can check your weapon and put it away…_ She eyed the blood? Ichor? smeared on her blade. _Maybe I should check my inventory for that cleaning kit._

The pain of the blow she took earlier throbbed into being as the adrenaline faded. _Ouch._ She winced and looked down at the bloody limb, assessing. _Uh. I shouldn’t be able to move that._ The size of the wound should be significantly impeding her movement, but she’d just definitively proven it didn’t. And it hurt, it really did, but it was more like the burn of a very deep bruise at this point than severed muscle. She could fight through it. She glanced up at her health bar, where she had taken only five percent damage.

_Well, I guess that’s reassuring?_

She took a moment to reflect on the experience. _Well, there were a lot of nasty fluids everywhere… but! That adrenaline rush was_ exquisite! _And my body felt so light throughout the fight, even though I’m wearing plate armor!_ She could feel herself beginning to vibrate a bit with excitement.

She took a few steps to leave, but a sparkle on the ground caught her eye. _Gold!_

She had completely forgotten about collecting loot.

_Ahhh, this is the best. I can get in fights and get paid for it…_

_And I don’t have to worry about penalties for popping people in the face anymore!_

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, honest confession here, this is entirely based on my own experience with foam-fighting. I don't usually call what I did in high school LARPing, because we really weren't role-playing at all. It was just an excuse to beat each other up with swords and shit (we were in Belegarth, that subgroup that broke off to focus purely on the fighting aspect and less of the magic and stuff).  
> Also if you think that shit doesn't hurt, let me tell you that I have broken someone's nose and sent someone else to the hospital with a concussion, using a foam sword. Which is a bit embarrassing to admit, it really says more about my *lack* of skill at the time, because you aren't supposed to hit people in the head... 
> 
> Anyways, if you have any criticism for writing style or something, leave a note please!


End file.
